The random act of goodwill unfolded Wednesday outside a Winnipeg 7-Eleven after Chantell Smyth went inside for a coffee, leaving her dog Cola inside the car.

When she came outside, the car doors were locked and the vehicle’s lone key was in the ignition.

“I start crying because I’m in panic mode,” said Smyth, who had no cellphone, no wallet and just $18 cash on her at the time. “It was frustrating and overwhelming and I just fell apart.”

Smyth became frantic, looking around for a coat hanger to jimmy the lock. A man came to her aid and tried to open the door, to no avail.

Her luck turned when an older woman with a cane passed by. The man suggested they use the cane to smash in the door, but the woman refused, Smyth said.

Instead, the woman with the cane walked into the store, withdrew $70 in cash and handed it to Smyth as a way to pay for a locksmith.

“She told me to take the money, which I was refusing initially, even though I needed it, and not to break the window. (She said) it would scare my dog and leave glass all over the children’s car seat in the backseat and would be a lot more to repair,” Smyth said.

Staff at the 7-Eleven said the ordeal lasted at least an hour, and that the Smyth broke out into tears after her dog was released.

Smyth described the fiasco as “the icing on the cake” after a difficult year: her father died, her mother suffered PTSD after a house fire and her husband recently lost his job.

Now she says her “faith in humanity” has been restored, and she’s hoping to contact the woman to thank her and repay the good deed.

Smyth says all she knows about the woman is that she walks with a cane and drives a silver SUV with a Winnipeg Jets license plate.

“Even though I’ve had some really bad luck, there are people out there with worse luck. My goal was to pay it forward the same way she did to me,” she said. “I would love to see her again and thank her without tears.”

With the holiday season in full swing, Smyth’s husband says he considers the gesture a symbol of true Christmas spirit.

“It was just the perfect time for that little miracle,” Chris Dusone said.

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